A/N Okay okay okay okay OKAY. GUYS. ACE COMBAT 7 IS INCREDIBLE. I've already beaten the campaign twice now, and I can honestly say that it was so worth the wait for it.
WITH THAT IN MIND...I'm already thinking of ideas on how to incorporate Ace Combat 7 into the story, as either itself being the final part of this mega story, or that I mix it with what I already had planned before Ace Combat 7 was announced. It would be difficult to incorporate its events in between my AC6 and ACX stories because of what happens, so I'll say this now. What will most likely happen is that the Lighthouse War, if I choose to add all of it or portions of it, still working that out, WILL TAKE PLACE AFTER THE EVENTS OF ACE COMBAT X.

I will share more info when it becomes available as I work through the process. Until then, peace Aces!

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Chapter 8 - Front Line

Amidst the eternal waves of time

From a ripple of change shall the storm rise

Out of the Abyss peer the eyes of a demon

Behold the Razgriz, its wings of black sheath

- Briefing Room -

- October 4th, 2010 1004 hrs -

Colonel Perrault snorted a little in annoyance as he glanced at the pilots assembled in the room, then rested his eyes on Blaze, the two of them glaring at each other in a stare down.

Blaze won.

"Eagh, you people are like the plague, you know that? The moment you return to Sand Island, this happens." he grunted before stepped back to continue his glare at Blaze.

"A large combined force of Yuktobanian vessels and aircraft has been detected advancing in the ocean directly toward Sand Island from the west. Our intelligence has confirmed the presence of amphibious assault ships within the oncoming fleet. We believe the enemy's goal is to conduct a landing operation on Sand Island and capture this base. Close with the enemy, disrupt landing operations and suppress their naval gunfire at our forces ashore." explained the Briefer, Blaze noticing some of the rookie pilots turn green.

"Even if this turns into a ground war, I am prepared to fight for this island to the bitter end. As my advance guard, I want you to forget everything else and concentrate on dealing a lethal blow to the incoming enemy invasion fleet. We'll be deploying everything we've got. launch every available aircraft capable of anti-ship combat, regardless of combat experience. Good luck people."

- Sand Island, Ceres Ocean -

- 08°10'19"N 144°32'32"E -

- October 4, 2010 1007 hrs -

Blaze looked back at the three diagonal lines of F-5Es flying behind them and sighed, slowly shaking his head out of disdain at Perrault's decision. To bolster their forces, he had ordered the Nuggets they had brought back with them from Heierlark to sortie for the operation. And to Blaze, sending pilots who had no experience flying in an actual battle was a foolish idea.

Despite Perrault being his commanding officer, and despite it being the only option to have an acceptable fighting force, sending in rookies had lost some of Blaze's respect for the base commander.

"This is Thunderhead, all units, listen carefully."

Chopper snickered mischievously, not being able to hold himself back upon hearing the voice of their AWACS after so long.

"Ahh, I missed that sweet voice. Say, you get that from your mama's side of the family?" he asked before he started laughing out loud, Thunderhead's silence radiating his annoyance at Choppers quip.

"Cut the chatter. First enemy wave, bearing 280 degrees. You are cleared to engage on sight." said Thunderhead, Blaze checking that all his weapons systems and plane controls were working.

For the operation he had the F-14D's XLAAs replaced by air to ground XAGM missiles, able to lock onto four ground targets simultaneously. Although, there wasn't going to be any ground targets, only naval targets, they worked all the same and could still cause serious damage.

"It's too risky to bring the nuggets out here…" muttered Nagase, none too pleased with Perrault's decision either.

They were talking on their own private radio channel, since they didn't want the nuggets to hear their negative words and worries. Anything to ensure they were confident in themselves and the flight leads that would lead them into battle was needed. And Blaze had wished that they were given better fighter jets, since their Tiger IIs could only carry bombs.

"I think so too, but it can't be helped Nagase. Just focus on the mission and we can go home." said Blaze as they approached the first target.

The fleet itself was organized in an octagonal pattern, with the landing ships and their hovercraft offspring at the front, the frigates on the sides and the command ship and destroyers in the rear. In of itself, Blaze could see why they had made it that way, so as to protect their more important vessels, but it was a bad decision as well. Their landing ships would be totally unguarded at the front and easy prey for them, even the nuggets could destroy them with little to no trouble.

"Seriously, they've got their hands full just keeping their planes in the air." exclaimed Chopper, sharing the same idea as well.

"Do you ever get scared, Captain?" asked one of the rookies from his F-5E.

Blaze smiled a little as he put on his oxygen mask. "Sometimes, yes...I do. We're all human so we just have to live with it."

"I see...so you're just like us then?"

"In some ways, yeah. You nuggets have a long way to go, but just stick with what we told you, and I'm sure you'll do fine."

They were mostly empty words. He had already accepted within his heart that some of the green pilots wouldn't be making it back to Sand Island with them. He was sure that Nagase, Chopper and Grimm had swallowed that fact as well, but they were keeping it under wraps so they weren't distracted.

Sand Island was already under siege by another, smaller vanguard force and they were taking on the main fleet that was sending reinforcements to back them up. If they couldn't hold the line here, then their tiny little island base would be the first to fall to Yuktobania.

Blaze targeted the the first hovercraft and did a barrel roll to dive down at it, holding down the gun trigger and letting his gun do the talking as he peppered the ship with a hail of gunfire and pulled off to allow Grimm to snag the kill with a missile.

"This is Sand Island Base Defense! Enemy amphibious force intercepted at the coastline!"

"Here we go…" said Chopper as Blaze gave the order to disperse and use special weapons freely.

"Enemy ships are firing towards Sand Island. Stop them." ordered Thunderhead. "Enemy assault ships are also launching attack helicopters. Shoot them down before they reach Sand Island to assist their vanguard force."

"Chopper, get on my six and after every helicopter I shoot down, lay a missile directly into the center of each Landing Ship. If that doesn't kill it, I will circle around for the killing blow while you move on to the next."

"Roger Kid, moving behind you." responded Chopper as they sped towards the first line of Landing Ships, AA fire peppering the sky around them.

Blaze shot down the first helicopter and the landing ship afterwards was engulfed by a plume of fire and water, the missile Chopper sent at it causing the tanks it had within its belly to erupt and cause the whole ship to detonate.

Grimm and Nagase followed the same strategy on the other half of the fleet's formation, Nagase eliminating the helicopter while Grimm used two missiles that sunk the landing ship. One ripped open a huge hole in its hole and the other sealed its fate, the craft listing heavily to the right until it couldn't recover and turned belly up.

"Beta Flight, go with Nagase to the back of the fleet and take out the command ship and the destroyer escorts." ordered Blaze after the second landing ship was sunk by Chopper.

"Roger." replied one of the rookies before he and three other F-5Es left with Nagase.

"Take care of yourself Blaze."

Nagase turned away with Grimm and went right down the middle toward the main fleet in the back, their flight of rookies right behind them. The other flight, Alpha, split up into two man pairs, one of them going with Chopper to fill in the void left by Nagase and Grimm while Blaze kept the other two himself.

"Remember what I told Chopper?"

"You'll take out the helicopter, and we follow up on the landing ship? Was that right captain?"

Blaze smiled. "Spot on, Nugget. Let's go, try to keep up. And let's try to beat out Motormouth over there."

"Hey!"

Blaze and his nuggets laughed as they continued their attack, while Nagase and Grimm arrived at the main fleet to a hailstorm of defensive fire. Nagase quickly scanned the enemy fleet make up and from her knowledge, she identified four frigates, two of the Krivak-class and two of the Neustrashimy-class. Then three destroyers, two Sovremenny-class and one Udaloy-class, and finally what she assumed to be the Fleet ship, a Kirov-class battlecruiser in the direct center.

"Stay close to us Nuggets, and follow our lead." she said before diving low with Grimm.

"Roger, Captain!"

The rookies stuck to their trails as they first went after the frigates, the Yuke vessels opening fire on them with their defensive weapons, but it wasn't enough to keep Nagase and Grimm from sinking one of the frigates.

"Gah, some damage in the left wing!" grunted Grimm after a few rounds hit his Tomcat. "It's alright, damage is minimal! I'm still good to go!"

"The coastline is under heavy enemy attack! They've got tanks, foot soldiers, everything!" called out one of the base defenders frantically.

"I know, I know! All units, this is Colonel Perrault at Base Command. Do everything in your power to stop the main fleet from sending reinforcements. If you can't protect this island, what'll we tell our great heroes in the sky?"

"Great heroes? What's up with him? It's as if he's a completely different person." wondered Grimm, receiving a snort from Chopper.

"Don't expect that stuff when we get back. I bet he's got a different script for us."

"Enemy ships launching hovercraft." reported Thunderhead, Blaze spotting them to his right.

"Nuggets, think you can take care of them?"

"Yes sir, Captain!"

His two rookies split off to attack the hovercrafts as he watched and with a smile the pilots were able to work together to bring down the hovercrafts and their landing craft mothership, using the same technique he was teaching them as they fought.

Needless to say, he was feeling rather proud right now, like a father would for his kids.

"Airborne attack squadron, stay on course with the mission. We will stand firm and fight to the end!" announced Perrault, several gunshots and explosions heard over the radio in the background.

"What a tearjerker." said Grimm with a chuckle.

"Nagase, what's the status on those destroyers and the command ship?"

Blaze's rookies formed up with him again after he asked the question and Chopper's flight finished off a pair of landing ships and hovercraft on the other side.

"We've engaged and sunk the frigates, but we're having difficulty with the destroyers, Blaze."

"Their command ship is keeping us at bay too with missile attacks, and we don't want to risk the safety of the Nuggets, Captain. Should we hold off our attack until you arrive?"

"Yeah, hold on. Chopper, let's hurry it up so we can form up and attack the fleet together." said Blaze.

With all things considering, everything was going smoothly, already half of the fleet was destroyed and would be totally annihilated in a matter of minutes. All of the nuggets were accounted for and it seemed that nothing bad would happen.

Blaze and Chopper were eventually able to meet up with Nagase and Grimm, and with their squadron now at full strength they took on the might of the Yuke main fleet, it's command ship proving to be the most difficult to deal with because of its missile defense systems. But, with the nuggets acting as back up, the fleet quickly fell to their assault and the seas were clear.

"All enemy vessels have been sunk! Wardog, return to Sand Island and-"

Thunderhead stopped when his air crew detected a large object launching out of the water in the center of the enemy fleet's former formation, and Nagase, being the first to spot it visually, was quick to make it known.

"Missile fired from enemy sub!"

"What?!"

"It's the Scinfaxi…" murmured Blaze after spotting it as well, recognizing the missile. "But…"

"Get out of there Grimm! You nuggets too!" ordered Nagase before she turned her plane up and began to climb.

"Climb! Climb! C'mon!" urged Chopper while he followed her with Grimm hot on his tail

"Submarine missile launch confirmed! Believed to be a burst missile, with multiple warheads that separate mid-air." said Thunderhead as he got one of his men to track the missile's flight path. "Get above five thousand feet and stand by!"

"You nuggets get your asses above five thousand feet, now." ordered Blaze sharply, some gulps being heard from some of the rookies.

They were smart to follow orders while Blaze remained at his current altitude, searching the water for any indication of the Scinfaxi's general location since the water disturbance from the missile launch had already vanished. The enemy submarine could be anywhere, and he was searching as much as he can.

"Captain, what about you?! Hurry!" shouted Grimm, Blaze chuckling a bit. "You have to climb now!"

"Don't worry Grimm, I'll be fine." shrugged Blaze, the three of them lost for words at his eerily calm demeanor.

"Wait, we're getting a command override from somewhere." said Thunderhead, confused to the new data he was receiving. "Data link to A-Sat targeting system...what is this?"

Nagase looked from the sky back to Blaze and back to the sky again. What Thunderhead had read aloud had sparked something in her and soon a smile spread over her face when she realized what it meant. At the same time two more, albeit smaller, Yuktobanian fleets appeared on radar, probably as back-up for the main fleet in case it got into trouble,

"Now it's counting down by itself. Nine, eight, seven…"

Chopper yelled at Blaze, "Kid, c'mon man! Hurry!"

"Four, three, two, one." finished Thunderhead, the sky suddenly lighting up as a solid blue beam of energy shot down from the sky and disintegrated the missile in mid-air. Blaze smirked as the beam faded away once the threat was removed, while Chopper and Grimm were totally flabbergasted.

"The sky just lit up!"

"Missile destroyed by a laser fired from orbit!" Thunderhead smiled and clapped his hands together. "It's the Arkbird, we've got the Arkbird! All units, continue the operation!"

"Kid!" Chopper and the others rejoined Blaze as he flew towards one of the new fleets. "How did you know the Arkbird was going to shoot down that missile?"
"Just gotta have some faith in our white bird."

He chuckled as the rookies formed up with them as well and together they attacked the second backup fleet, consisting of a measly three frigates and a single destroyer. Blaze ordered the rookies to attack the frigates with the knowledge they learned from watching them, and he watched with a smile as they performed their duties quite well while he sunk the destroyer with Grimm's help.

"This is the anti-submarine plane Blue Hound. Submarine detected by sonobuoy...sound pattern analysis matches that of the Scinfaxi."

"Captain, do you think the Arkbird can really avoid hitting us?" asked Grimm, questioning the firepower they had over their heads.

"Yeah, just don't go towards the light." joked Blaze, Chopper making a little buzzing noise to add to the joke.

They laughed at the hilarity of the joke but Grimm only blinked a few times. "I don't get it."

Blaze stopped laughing and Chopper choked a little when he stopped too, Grimm still confused while Nagase herself had a little chuckle at their failed joke. When the last enemy ship was sunk, they were on their way to attack the second fleet when four enemy fighters came up on radar.

Chopper and Grimm split off to take care of them while Blaze and Nagase continued on with the rookies to the second fleet, during that time their AWACS and Blue Hound were coordinating with one another to ensure that the Arkbird would be ready for when the Scinfaxi decided to fire again.

And ready it was.

"Thunderhead, this is Blue Hound. Detecting sounds from Scinfaxi indicating imminent missile launch."

"Roger Blue Hound. We'll send the data over as soon as we detect the missile." responded Thunderhead, who walked to one of the officers on board his plane, standing by the monitor.

Just when the last of the enemy fighters that entered the airspace was shot down by Chopper, a plume of white foam shot up from the ocean and a missile soared upward from the Scinfaxi somewhere below.

"Missile away from enemy sub." reported Blue Hound, Thunderhead quick to act. He had his men acquire the missile in their sights and begin to transmit to Blue Hound.

"Locked on! Begin data link!"

Blaze and his flight ignored the burst missile and continued to attack the remaining enemy forces, with Chopper and Grimm meeting up with them just in time to take down the second back-up fleet.

"Arkbird firing laser." said Thunderhead, the flash returning again, followed by the gigantic beam. The missile was vaporized once again with no traces left at all.

"Another missile destroyed!"

Seeing the missiles that had been so devastating to their naval ships in the Eaglin Straits be destroyed by a weapon the Yukes could only dream about trying to reach was enough to bolster the morale of the rookies.

"I'm gonna make it out! I'm gonna get out of this alive, I know it!" Nagase smiled at their enthusiasm, and it actually rubbed off on her enough that she began to believe that all of them were going to make it back to Sand Island.

"Was this what they launched that day?!" stuttered a Yuke their radios managed to pick up before one that was calmer, if not a little more cockier was heard.

"We haven't lost yet." he said, Blaze's smirk dropping for a moment and a eerie feeling passing over his body.

That feeling he had honed from many years prior, the sixth sense that would go off when something incredibly bad was about to happen. All of a sudden, another missile shot out of the water, followed by a second, then a third, then a fourth.

The Scinfaxi had decided to quit playing with its food and launched a vast amount of burst missiles. Two had already been destroyed by the Arkbird, but they guessed that the satellite could only utilize its laser for one at a time, so they gambled and took a chance that the odds of their enemies eliminating all the missiles was very little.

"Oh no! They're launching more missiles! Number three, number four, number five...Jesus Christ..." stuttered Blue Hound, Blaze, Grimm, Chopper and Nagase turning white.

"What the hell is wrong with them?!" shouted Chopper before he started to round up the rookies and started to fly up.

"Climb! Let's move it!" urged Grimm, taking the lead of the rookies as they climbed, Blaze hot on their trail.

Their F-14Ds though were way faster than the rookie's F-5Es and were far ahead of them, already halfway to above five thousand feet at around seven thousand.

"Missile vaporized in midair!" reported Thunderhead after the blue laser appeared again, but it seemed the gamble the Yukes had made paid off. The laser dissipated and there was little chance of it returning as the rest of the missiles kept going on their flight paths.

"They're coming! They're still coming!" uttered Grimm fearfully. "The nuggets!

"Get moving! Come on, you're almost there!" yelled Nagase, the rookies pushing their planes as fast as they could go.

Blaze had already reached a safe altitude and he looked down, tapping his foot progressively harder and harder against the floor of the cockpit in nervous anticipation for the rookies to make it. Flashes of the Eaglin Straits and the Vulture and Buzzard appeared in his mind, the screams of horror as the burst missiles did their dirty work.

"Come on!"

"Ten seconds to impact. Eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one impact...now!"

It was almost as if they were reaching out to the nuggets, fingertips nearly touching, hoping to grab onto them and pull them up to safety. But as the individual warheads from the burst missiles detonated, and the super-heated gas ignited and expanded outward with their brilliant oranges and reds and yellows, their hearts shot up into their throats.

One by one the nuggets were gobbled up by the flames until the last one disappeared from view, several young, terrified screams of anguish piercing their eardrums through the radio before they were cut off suddenly.

"The eject handles stuck! E-Everything's fused together!"

"Aaaayyaaagh! It burns!"

Blaze couldn't contain his emotions behind and he had to look away, ripping up his visor to cover his eyes with a hand as tears emerged. Images of an exploding fighter jet and a snowy sky with grey clouds flashed in his mind like lightning, and he yelled out his grief for all to hear.

"Noo! No, no!" cried Nagase, crying too. She wished she could dive in to save the young pilots who had so much of their lives left to live, but she couldn't.

The giant flaming spheres eventually dissipated and all they could see were the flaming, melted and horribly disfigured lumps of metal that used to be fighter jets hurtling towards the sea, some with their pilots still alive, screaming to try and escape their inevitable end.

"We can't deal with the enemy fleet like this…" said Thunderhead, shaken by the event that had taken place. "...We have no choice. Just weave through the missiles and continue to attack the ships."

"Oh yeah, just weave through the missiles." uttered Chopper, angry. "What are you, fucking nuts?!"

At a loss of what to do, and with their submerged enemy still out of sight and ready to attack at any time, Blue Hound's operator kept a cool head and answered a call when one came in.

"Blue Hound, this is Arkbird. Requesting sonobuoy data link."

"Stand by, we're dropping a new sonobuoy." said Blue Hound while Blaze and company had to swallow their emotions when another flight of Yuke fighters, Su-33s, entered the airspace.

"Blue hound, this is Arkbird. Is that sonobuoy data available yet?"

"Roger, we're sending it now. What are you going to do?" Blue Hound didn't quite understand what the Arkbird's crew was going to do.

"Countdown to firing. Five, four, three, two, one."

Another flash of light and the Arkbird's laser slammed into the ocean and after a few seconds, a plume of water exploded outward followed by a severe shock wave. The data had provided the satellite enough information to pinpoint the Yuke submarine's location and with a precise laser strike, they were able to damage the submarine.

"The Arkbird shot a laser in the ocean! Explosion in the water, it damaged the submerged Scinfaxi!" exclaimed Blue Hound, Blaze looking over his shoulder to see the water start to churn. "Picking up sounds of main ballast below. The Scinfaxi's surfacing!"

Another plume of water emerged and the nose of the submarine breached first, followed by the rest of its gargantuan body. Blaze was astounded to see such a large vessel was even considered a submarine, but then again, considering some of his past experiences, anything was possible.

Once the giant sub settled on the water, Blaze estimated it to be as long as four football fields. He was able to get a good look at it too and saw a large scorch mark on the left side of its hull, which he assumed was from the Arkbird. Considering how quickly the vessel surfaced, he guessed that the laser had damaged its ballast tanks and forced it to rise.

"It's huge…" uttered Nagase in awe of the submarine, a symbol of Yuktobania's ship building might.

"Looks like it's lost diving ability. It's floating like a cork. All units, commence attack and sink that sub!" said Thunderhead, Blaze switching back to the XAGMs he had left.

"Target its surface weapons first then aim for missile silos on the ship. Got me?"

"Roger Captain, switching to special weapons." responded Grimm as they approached the giant sub.

"Scinfaxi launching aircraft!" said Blue Hound, F-35Cs launching off the back of the Scinfaxi's internal runway and up to meet Wardog. Blaze was taken aback by the ability of the submarine to launch aircraft, and he had to quickly change his battle plan to meet the new development.

"Change of plans, Chopper and Grimm, handle the fighters. Nagase, let's screw up that sub hm?"

"Roger Captain, lemme at 'em!" smirked Chopper when the AA fire started to blanket the skies, Blaze weaving through the rounds and SAM missiles. He was impressed with the defense measures taken into the design of the Scinfaxi, and had to give credit where credit was due.

"They put a lot of firepower into this..." Nagase stayed right by her captain's wing, weaving through the fire with him.

"Fox three." said Blaze, completely calm under the situation, launching four XAGMs that arched into the air then went straight down onto four gun installations on the Scinfaxi, multiple explosions ripping apart its topside.

In the air above Chopper and Grimm took down the F-35Cs the carrier launched and were about to join in on the attack on the Scinfaxi but more enemy fighters launched from it, Chopper whining slightly at having to dogfight more.

"Fox two, fox two!" Nagase's missile attack dealing more damage to the Scinfaxi.

It was like poking a beehive though, and making it even angrier then before. A column of smoke emerged from a missile silo when a burst missile launched from the deck of the Scinfaxi and got out of range of attack from Wardog in a quick manner.

"Scinfaxi firing burst missile! It's...It's heading towards Sand Island!" said Thunderhead in terror. "We've got to get word to Sand Island!"

"I've got it Thunderhead, you three stay and take out that sub!" ordered Blaze as he shot off into the sky towards the missile, Chopper firing another volley of XAGMs into the missile silos and effectively destroying them.

"Blaze! Don't risk it!"

Thunderhead's plea fell on deaf ears as Blaze pushed his aircraft to the absolute

"C'mon, C'mon! Make it!" he grunted, his grip on the flight stick making his knuckles go white.

As he went higher and higher into the atmosphere, he gazed at the height meter on his HUD and grunted, some black spots starting to flash in front of his eyes. He didn't know how high he was going up, but considering how the sky got darker and darker, he was going to go well above what a normal air engagement would take place at.

"Come on, come on!" he was waiting for the missile lock on, waiting for that loud shrill.

Meanwhile Nagase had taken over for Blaze in the fight against the Scinfaxi, and with her leading the charge she had effectively disabled all of the submarine's defensive armaments with Chopper and Grimm's help. With the Scinfaxi sitting there barely alive, Blue Hound took the opportunity to send data up to the Arkbird for it to fire once again.

"Arkbird firing laser." said Thunderbird, the blue laser striking down right through the entire hull of the Scinfaxi.

"Direct hit!" reported Blue Hound. "It ripped a massive hole! The sub appears to have lost the ability to launch additional aircraft!"

"Blast it out of the water!"

"Roger that!" smirked Chopper as he spiraled up into the air and swung right back down, dive bomb style.

He zoomed down at the Scinfaxi and when the XAGM he had prepped locked onto the gigantic hole in the sub he pressed the trigger and entered a sharp climb, laughing the whole way up. The missile struck true and the whole submarine rocked from the explosion that only quickened its fate.

Half of the Scinfaxi had already sunk before the weaponry it still had inside was touched by the flames and like one big pile of TNT the whole vessel went up in a huge fiery mushroom cloud, the shockwave displacing the water around it and making a loud boom. With this, the pride of the Yuktobanian navy was doomed to a watery grave.

"Yeah! We did it!" said Grimm, joining up with Chopper and Nagase.

"Enemy forces on the coastline of Sand Island have been repelled and the enemy fleet is destroyed, good work Wardog." congratulated Thunderhead, something rare for him.

"Hey Kid, you take care of that missile?" asked Chopper, waiting for Blaze to respond, but all he heard was static.

Suddenly the burst missile that was launched exploded in the sky, Chopper, Nagase and Grimm looking up above them in awe of the sparkling lights, but their awe quickly turned to worry when there wasn't any word back from their flight lead.

"Blaze? Blaze!?" shouted Nagase in worry until she barely saw his plane appear out of the giant fireball trailing tons of smoke and start hurtling towards the earth.

"There! I see his plane!"

They pushed the throttle all the way forward, kicking in the afterburners towards his plane, coming closer and seeing that it must've been caught inside one of the burst missile's fireballs, parts of it melted off and half its wing gone with smoke trailing heavily from the burning and dissolved engines

The worst thing of all was that the canopy wasn't popped open, which mean Blaze was still trapped inside, and he wasn't responding.

"Blaze get out of there! You have to eject!" pleaded Nagase as loud as she could, hoping that he could hear her, but to him, her screams were miles away. "Blaze!"

They ended up flying all the way back to Sand Island, Blaze's jet losing its last wing and beginning to tumble wildly down towards the island. The beaches of the base looked like a battlefield after the failed invasion by the Yukes, but the pilots hardly noticed it. All they did was watch, horrified, as Blaze's plane smashed into the tarmac, skid a few yards then come to a stop, a trail of fire and molten parts left in its wake.

Against all of the odds and then some, however, Blaze had survived the burst missile inferno and the crash, groaning as he came to after blacking out. As soon as he tried to move though, his body felt like it was being stabbed with a thousand fiery needles and he gasped for breath. Blaze looked down and almost lost his lunch at the jagged piece of metal sticking out of his gut, his blood dripping off its tip. He coughed up more of his own blood as he opened and closed his right hand several time, feeling the sense in his fingertips slipping away.

"That's..my blood...hehe..." he laughed a little, the loss of blood making him lightheaded. "A...lot of...my blood…"

The emergency ground crew quickly came over to his plane, Grimm, Nagase and Chopper, who had landed moments ago, hot on their heels. They put out the fires around the plane with the firetrucks and once it was safe to approach, several men carrying hydraulic rescue tools went to work, bending the molten and twisted metal until they were able to pop open the canopy with a loud hiss.

Nagase cupped her hand over her mouth as she saw Blaze getting pulled out of the plane, grunting in pain, the piece of metal in his gut still lodged in there and his flight suit blackened and charred from the heat alone. He winced and yelled loudly from the second and partial third degree burns he had suffered from the intense heat.

"Jesus H. Christ…" uttered Chopper in awe. Grimm was utterly speechless and Nagase had to eventually look away from Blaze, unable to see him in such a state.

They put Blaze on a collapsible stretcher and rolled him away from the wreck, Pops jogging out to them from one of the hangers and joining the three of them at looking at the ruined F-14D.

"He'll be alright, don't worry. I have a feeling he's been in something like this before." he said, comforting the three of them with his words.

"Now go on, you all deserve a rest." Pops shooed them away from the ruined fighter jet, just to get them to think about something else and not about their flight lead for the time being.

^^^^Debriefing Message^^^^

The Arkbird was successfully employed over the forward edge of the battle area. The enemy amphibious force attacking Sand Island was repelled and their invasion plan halted. The underwater carrier Scinfaxi, a lethal enemy threat, was engaged and destroyed by the superior firepower of the Arkbird. Having lost the support of the Scinfaxi, the remaining Yuktobanian forces retreated. Furthermore, we are requesting reinforcements from Central Command to replace our squadron members lost in combat, along with requesting a new plane for Blaze, who crashed from damage sustained after destroying a burst missile en route to Sand Island. Blaze is currently undergoing treatment for the severe injuries he sustained from the battle, but he is expected to pull through.